Page 53: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2022)

SHIP DESIGN NUCLEAR & MARITIME try and university partners to develop a

Gen-IV 20 MW fast-spectrum SMR with a 40-year fuel life for marine propul- sion. Singapore, too, has a ship-shaped reactor test bed called Earth 300. The alternative is a Russian, Rosatom reac- tor, but it would need to refuel, at best, every ? ve years, says Lewis. To refuel, the unit needs to return to Russia for re- fueling, understood to take many weeks. “MSR designs feature a number of fuel types — low enriched uranium, thorium, plutonium, TRISO, and molten chloride/ ? uoride salt. Each of these has different refueling cycles.”

Renewed enterprise

The original proponents of burning thorium dissolved as a ? uoride in mol- ten salt were Americans, Ralph Moir and

Edward Teller back in 2005.

Yet, it was the designer of the SSN Nau- tilus’s reactor, Alvin Weinberg (Chuck

Hawkins: 100 percent Renewables a De-

A new application: lusion) who envisaged a thorium reactor

Corepower’s nuclear cargo concept. “taking over commercial power, ship propulsion, and water desalination” — back in 1955! Thor is now doing some of that. Yet, the Ulstein concept carries passengers, and Kamsvaag concedes the need to address people’s concerns about stepping onto a nuclear-powered vessel, perhaps in the arctic. “It’s important for

Image courtesy CorePower us to educate the public. We have to talk to politicians. Flag states …”

Yet, the reaction to Thor was not what was expected. “We did not expect pub- lic opinion to be … (so super-positive).

Nuclear power has a certain color to it,” he says. “There is a bit of resistance, but

MAG DRILLS & ANNULAR CUTTERS all see that in the next 2000 years you’ll still need energy.”

From small lightweight low profile mag drills to

Workshops and talks on getting that large multi-speed models and a wide range of type of energy onto Ulstein designs — annular cutters, Hougen has the power, performance & solutions for your holemaking needs.

“the practical part” — start this fall.

Maritime Reporter suggests taking in a

CorePower seminar on marine-nuclear.

Asked if captains of vessels like the

Thor will need a physicist or nuclear en- gineer onboard, he shrugs. “He’ll prob- ably have to have a science of? cer.” -426-7818SERVICE • INTEGRITY 800-426-7818 SERVICE • INTEGRITY • RELIABILITY HOUGEN.COM

Logical, we think. www.marinelink.com 53

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